Qass 

Book ■ C7<2£ _ 



NEW GRANADA, 

AND THE 

UNITE!) STATES OF AMERICA. . 



DIPLOMATIC CONTROVERSY 

RELATING TO 

%\t ®ttmxmm i\rd took plate at |}mta;nm 



ON THE 15th OF APRIL, 1856. 



. ' LIVERPOOL: 

RE-PRINTKT) AT THE MAIL OFFICE, LIVER COURT, SOUTH CASTLE STREET. 



} 



The following pages contain a verbatim Reprint of a 
State Paper recently issued by the Government of New 
Granada, entitled " New Granada and the United 
u States of America — Final Diplomatic Controversy 
" relating to the occurrences that took place at Panama 
" on the 15th of April, 1856." The original is trebly set 
forth — in the Spanish, French, and English languages : 
the English version has been faithfully adhered to. 

As it relates to my native country, whose prosperity 
and whose honour is still dear to my heart, although 
I have been a naturalised British subject and engaged 
in mercantile affairs for many years past in England, I 
believe I cannot render a more dutiful service than to 
send forth this important document, and without note 
or comment. It speaks for itself, trumpet-tongued. 

I would only add that, although having the honour 
to hold the office of Consul for New Granada at 
Liverpool, I send forth this pamphlet entirely on my 
private responsibility, without any promptings from the 
Government of New Granada, or from any other State 
or individual whatever. And I do this as an individual 
merchant, and in nowise in my official capacity. 

LUIS #S™MAEIA. 

/ ' 

LIVERPOOL; 4tii Jua&r 1857. 



PROPOSITIONS 



Handed by Messrs. Morse and Bowlin, as" Plenipotentiaries of the 
Government of the United States, to the Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs, on the 4th of February, 1857. 

PROPOSITION FIRST. 

ei To erect the cities of Panama and Aspinwall (Colon) 
into two municipalities independent and neutral to govern 
themselves, with a territory ten miles wide on each side of 
the Railroad. — The perfect freedom of the transit route. — 
Neutrality and freedom guaranteed, sovereignty unchanged. 
— Other nations to be invited into the guarantees." 

ARGUMENT. 

By this proposition New Granada retains the 
sovereignty over the territory, only consenting to the 
creation of municipalities with limited attributes of 
sovereignty, similar to States in a federal compact. 

By it, she releases herself from her obligation to 
protect the Railroad route, which can only be done at 
considerable expense. 

She secures her own free use at all times over the route 
as perfect as she now enjoys it. 

This arrangement is similar to the one between Great 
Britain and the United States, in relation to the free 
municipalities of Grey town on the Nicaragua route — and 
the late arrangement of the Bay Islands. 

By this arrangement New Granada loses nothing, not 
even fancied honour, whilst she gains — an exemption from 
an onerous duty of protecting the route — exemption from 
all liability for damages for invasions of the right of 
transit — and secures permanent aid in defence of the 
integrity of that part of her territory from invasion at all 
times. 

PROPOSITION SECOND. 
" To transfer to the States the two little clusters of 
Islands in the Bay of Panama in full sovereignty, for a 

B 



4 



naval station, and all reserved rights and privileges in the 
Panama Railroad charter, for an ample consideration 

The object of this second proposition is, first : — to 
establish a Navy-yard in the Bay of Panama. This would 
be nearly of as much benefit to New Granada as to the 
United States : it would greatly enhance the security of 
the Isthmus route from invasion or outbreak — and tend to 
relieve New Granada from the necessity of defending it, 
as it would keep resources always at hand. It would open 
a splendid market to the productions of the Isthmus, and 
encourage trade and commerce to Granadian territory. 

Besides, the United States would get nothing by the 
purchase but the sovereignty, as the property is now held 
by individuals and chiefly by citizens of the United States, 
such an establishment, drawing around it as a common 
centre the commerce of the Pacific, could, it is believed, 
have no other tendency than to enhance the wealth and 
glory of New Granada. 

The transfer of the railroad privileges, it is believed, 
carries with it but little of profit. For whilst it yields 
under the contract some forty or fifty thousand dollars 
annually, yet the corresponding obligation to protect it, 
would, if properly executed, cost nearly as much, if not 
quite as much as the income, and the obligations are 
mutual. The revenue cannot be exacted without the pro- 
tection afforded. By this transfer New Granada releases 
-herself for ever from this obligation, whilst she would 
realise in the consideration the full value of her income, and 
even much more. 

PROPOSITION THIRD. 

" To pay the damages occasioned by the late Panama 
riot." 

This question needs no discussion. The liability of 
New Granada is a fixed fact ; she was not only bound to 
protect the route, which would have fixed her liability, — 
but her own citizens, headed by officials, perpetrated the 



5 



outrage, which doubly fixes liability upon her. — As to the 
amount, the United States has fully investigated that 
matter and fixed it. — Whilst New Granada has not only 
not investigated, but refused to lend the aid of her legal 
process to bring up witnesses in aid of such investigation, 
and can now raise no question as to the result. The 
evidence, though not as complete as it might have been 
could we have had process to bring up unwilling witnesses, 
is yet ample to show the destruction of life and robbery of 
property to the amount claimed. At all events, the 
Government of the United States have spared no pains to 
ascertain the facts and have settled it, and that is no longer 
an open question, and New Granada cannot complain — as 
the authorities of Panama, instead of aiding to solicit the 
facts threw every possible obstacle in the way, and what 
we have been able to obtain against their resistance must 
be the basis of the decision. 

PROPOSITION FOURTH. 

" The sum to be paid by the United States." 

The sum is liberal, very far above the value, real or 
imaginary, of the property conferred. For the sake of a 
settlement to secure peace and harmony, the United States 
are willing to pay many times the real value of the things 
obtained. 

THE "PKOJET" 

TENDERED IN THE SAME CONFERENCE. 

Convention between the United States of America and the Republic 
op New Granada, for the Adjustment of Claims of Citizens of the 
United States, and for Settling other Differences between the 
Parties. 

Whereas, by the 35th article of the treaty of peace, 
amity, navigation, and commerce between the high con- 
tracting parties, concluded on 12th of December, 1846, 
and ratified and exchanged on 10th of June, 1848, a right 
of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama, within the 
b 2 



6 



territory of New Granada, was granted to the United 
States, and the citizens thereof, and certain rights and 
privileges were by that, and other articles of the said 
treaty, conferred on the government and people of the 
United States, in relation to the said right of way or 
transit : 

And, Whereas, a certain Company, denominated the 
Panama Railroad Company, mainly consisting of American 
citizens, have, with a view to the enjoyment of the rights 
and privileges so conferred, and pursuant to a charter 
granted to said Company by the Republic of New Granada, 
constructed a Railroad across the said Isthmus : 

And, Whereas, it is for the mutual interest of the high 
contracting parties that this Railroad, or any other inter- 
oceanic communication which may be constructed within 
the limits of New Granada, should be secured from inter- 
ruption and rendered safe for all persons and property 
passing or designed to pass over the same : 

The high contracting parties do, for the purposes afore- 
said, enter into the following stipulations : — The President 
of the United States having, for this object, conferred full 
powers on Isaac E. Morse, Esquire, a citizen of the United 
States of America, and James B. Bowlin, Esquire, the 
Minister resident of the said United States accredited to the 
Republic of New Granada ; and the President of New 
Granada having conferred similar powers on 

who have exchanged their said powers, 
which were found to be in due form. 

Article I. 

It is hereby agreed that New Granada shall constitute 
and declare : 

(First) That the port of Colon, otherwise called Aspin- 
wall, and the port of Panama, shall be free ports. 

(Second) That a district of country, twenty English 
miles in width, bounded on the north and south running 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean in the general direc- 



7 



tion equidistant, or as nearly so as practicable, from the 
present line of the Panama Railroad, and including within 
the same the ports and cities of Aspinwall (Colon) and 
Panama, shall be under the exclusive municipal jurisdiction 
of the inhabitants residing therein, New Granada still 
retaining the sovereignty over the same, to be exercised 
in any manner not inconsistent with the municipal 
jurisdiction and power herein conceded to the residents of 
said district. 

(Third) That there shall be two municipalities estab- 
lished within the said district, one including Panama, 
and the other Colon, otherwise called Aspinwall , and the 
jurisdiction of each shall extend to a line drawn across the 
said district at a distance midway between the two cities, 
or as nearly so as may be, and the inhabitants of each shall 
have the following rights and privileges, subject to the 
specified restrictions : 

(A) The right to govern themselves by means of their 
own municipal government, to be administered by legisla- 
tive, executive, and judicial officers, elected according to 
their own regulations. The right to vote at all elections 
shall be confined to freeholders and residents owning 
personal property to the amount of 

(B) Trial by jury in their own Courts. 

(C) Perfect freedom of religious belief and of worship 
public and private. 

(D) Neither of the said municipal governments shall 
lay any duties on goods exported, nor on goods imported 
for transit across the Isthmus or for consumption beyond 
the limits of their respective territories, nor any duty of 
tonnage on vessels except such as may be necessary for the 
police of the ports, and the maintenance of lighthouses 
and beacons ; nothing herein contained shall impair or 
abridge the right of the municipal authority of the said 
governments to levy taxes by the ordinary mode of 
taxation on the real and personal property of the 
inhabitants, for the purpose of raising the necessary sums 



8 



for defraying the expenses incident on the due administra- 
tion of public affairs in all branches thereof. 

(E) Exemption from military service, except for the 
defence of either of the territories aforesaid. 

(Fourth) That each of the said municipalities shall enact 
suitable laws for the protection of the said Panama Kail- 
road or any other transit way across the Isthmus, for the 
security of persons engaged upon the said road or way, 
and of the passengers and all property passing or intended 
to be transported over the said road ; and shall cause the 
same to be duly executed. 

(Fifth) That whenever it shall be deemed necessary, 
and the Panama Railroad Company or its agents shall 
make application to the United States Consul at Aspinwall 
(Colon) or Panama for that purpose, such Consul shall 
require of the mayor or chief magistrate of either city, a 
police force for the protection of the Panama Railroad, 
or any other route of travel and transportation across the 
Isthmus within the district aforesaid, or for the security of 
passengers or property passing or intended to be passed 
over the said road or route, or for the prevention or removal 
of any interruption of the said road or route, the said mayor 
or chief magistrate shall promptly furnish the same. In 
case the mayor or chief magistrate shall refuse or neglect 
to furnish such force at the request of the Consul, the 
Consul shall then have authority to make a direct call on 
the said police, whose duty it shall be to obey such call ; 
and in case such call is not complied with, the Consul may 
organize and take charge of a temporary police force, and 
those composing it shall have the same protection for their 
acts, as the regular police force are entitled to. The said 
police, while upon duty for that purpose, shall be subject 
to the orders of the United States Consul requiring the 
same; and shall be kept in service so long as he shall 
determine such force to be necessary, and the whole force, 
or any persons belonging to it, shall be duly discharged 
when the said Consul shall request the same to be done ; 



the civil authorities of the municipalities shall in no way- 
embarrass or interfere with the action of the said police 
force, while executing the orders of the said Consul, for 
the protection and security aforesaid ; but shall lend their 
aid and assistance, if need be, to render the police force 
efficient for that purpose. In order to defray the expenses 
of such police force when so called out, the United States 
Consuls at Aspinwall (Colon) and Panama, shall have 
authority to make an assessment or to levy and collect 
taxes to the amount needed for that purpose, upon the 
Railroad and upon the passengers and property passing over 
the Railroad or route ; but no taxes, assessments or duties 
shall be levied by the municipal authorities at Aspinwall 
(Colon) or Panama, upon the Railroad passengers or their 
property, or foreign mails, or any articles of merchandise 
passing over the said road ; nothing, however, herein con- 
tained, shall exempt the said Railroad from such payments 
to the Republic of New Granada or its assignees, as it is 
now under obligations to pay, by its charter and engage- 
ments with that Republic. But this restriction is not to 
apply to any tax levied by direction or authority of the 
United States Consuls, to defray the expenses of the police, 
which may be called out to protect the Railroad passengers 
and property transported over the same. 

(Sixth) That in case the route across the Isthmus of 
Panama, within the district aforesaid, shall be interrupted 
or shall be seriously threatened with obstruction or inter- 
ruption, by a force or a power, which is likely to be too 
formidable to be put down by the police force which may- 
be called out for that purpose, as herein provided, then the 
naval force of the United States, which may be in or near 
either of the harbours, at the extremities of said road or 
route, may be used for the purpose of protecting, keeping 
open, and securing a free and safe passage over the said 
road, and the Government of the United States may also, 
if it should deem it necessary, send for the same purpose 
into the said district, or any part of it, or organise therein 



10 



a military force ; but whenever the exigency which may 
have led to the employment of the naval or military force 
of the United States shall cease, the same shall be with- 
drawn from the said territory. 

The high contracting parties shall each appoint, within 
three months after the exchange of the ratifications of this 
Convention, a Commissioner, and the two Commissioners 
shall immediately proceed to establish and mark the lines 
of the said district, and shall devise a mode for organizing 
the municipalities, and make needful regulations for 
executing the same. 

The high contracting parties hereby agree to respect 
the municipal governments hereby authorized to be estab- 
lished, and not to interfere, in any way, with the exercise 
of any of the powers granted or privileges conceded to the 
same, but will maintain with them friendly relations. 

Should either party, at any time, encroach upon the 
rights and privileges hereby granted and conceded, the 
other party may at its discretion, and in any way it may 
deem proper, aid the said municipal governments, or either 
of them, in resisting such encroachments. Should any 
foreign power invade the territories of the said municipal 
governments, or interfere with their rights and privileges, 
either party to this Convention may assist these govern- 
ments in defence of their territory and municipal rights. 

Article II. 

And it is expressly agreed, by the high contracting 
parties, that nothing contained in the foregoing article, 
shall give to, or confer upon, the people of the before 
described district or either of the municipalities therein 
authorized, any of the rights, powers, or privileges reserved 
by the Eepublic of New Granada to itself, by the charter 
granted to the Panama Railroad Company, or by any 
contract made with the said company ; and that neither 
the said people nor the municipalities shall have any control 
or jurisdiction over that road or any other interoceanic 



communication that may be made in or through that 
district ; and New Granada, for the considerations herein 
after mentioned, does hereby transfer and assign to the 
United States, all the rights, title, interest and control 
which she has by charter, contract, or in any other manner, 
into and over the said Panama railroad, with full power 
and authority to receive for their own use all sums of 
money or compensation, stipulated to be paid by the said 
Kailroad Company, for the privileges or for the right of 
transit, conferred by the charter granted to or any contract 
made with the said Panama Railroad Company ; and the 
United States are authorized and empowered to exact and 
enforce all the obligations which the said Panama Railroad 
Company has contracted with New Granada : and it is 
hereby furthermore stipulated, that the United States 
shall have and enjoy in regard to the said Railroad Com- 
pany, all the rights and authority in and over the said road, 
that New Granada has at any time had and enjoyed, and 
that they shall have full power and authority to alter, 
modify, or extend the charter of the said Panama Railroad 
Company, and to make any agreement with it, in relation 
to the use of the said road ; and they shall also have a full 
and exclusive power to grant any charter or to make any 
provision for the construction of any other railroad or 
passage way across the Isthmus of Panama, within the 
district of country mentioned in the next preceding article, 
on such terms as they may deem proper. 

Article III. 

If, unhappily, the high contracting parties shall be 
engaged in war with each other, they do hereby mutually 
agree that the district of country before described shall 
be neutral territory ; and neither party shall occupy the 
same for belligerent purposes (reserving the right of either 
to pass over it), nor shall either solicit or accept the 
services or aid of the said municipalities in the said war, 
but they shall remain neutral, neither shall either in any 



12 



way interrupt the transit within the district aforesaid, or 
obstruct or interfere with the ordinary operations of 
business on the said road, but the governments and citizens 
of each of the high contracting parties, respectively, shall 
have the same use of the road, during any such war, and 
the same security for their persons and property, on the 
said road, and within the district aforesaid, as if the said 
parties were at peace. 

Article IV. 

It is hereby agreed that both parties shall have the 
free use of the Panama Railroad Company {sic ), or any 
other means of passage across the Isthmus, within the said 
district ; but the said road or route shall be open to the 
common use of all nations which shall, by treaty stipula- 
tions, agree to regard and treat the district of country 
aforesaid at all times as neutral, and to respect the muni- 
cipal authorities therein established ; and all such nations 
shall have the use of said road or route to be established 
within the said district, upon fair and reasonable terms ; 
and they do further agree to invite foreign nations to join 
in the mutual guarantee of the neutrality of the said 
country of the municipal governments aforesaid, and of 
the unobstructed use of the said Panama Railroad, or any 
other road which may be established across the Isthmus, 
within the limits of the territory before designated. 

Article V. 

New Granada hereby stipulates and agrees to pay, in 
the manner hereinafter provided, to the United States 
the sum of dolrs. to be applied by the said United 
States, to satisfy the claims of those of their citizens who 
suffered bodily injuries in the riot at Panama on the 15th 
of April last ; to indemnify those citizens who had their 
property taken from them or destroyed in that riot, 
including damages to the Railroad Company, and its 
property ; and to make suitable provision for the families 



13 



of the citizens of the United States who were killed on 
that occasion. On the payment of the above sum of 
dols. for the purpose aforesaid, by the Government 
of New Granada, the United States releases it from all 
further claim or demand on that account. 

Article VI. 
In order to protect and render secure the transportation 
of persons and property across the Isthmus of Panama, 
and for the full enjoyment of the advantages of that 
interoceanic communication to the government and people 
of the United States, it is important that there should be 
a safe and commodious harbour for merchant vessels and 
national ships, near the termination of communication on 
the Pacific. — New Granada does for that purpose cede to 
the United States the islands of Taboga, Taboguilla and 
Uraba, and the other islands in the harbour of Panama, 
viz. : Flamingo (or Flamenco) Ilenao, Perico (and Culebra 
if it be an island) ; with all the rights and appurtenances 
thereunto belonging, in full sovereignty, to be owned and 
held for ever by the United States, in as full and ample 
a manner as they are or have been heretofore held by New 
Granada ; it is understood, that the cession now made of 
the said islands, shall not impair the title of individuals to 
any part of the said islands, holding the same by bona fide 
grants from the Republic of New Granada, or as assignees 
of such grants. Without other restriction, the United 
States may hereafter exercise full and exclusive jurisdiction 
of the said islands Flamingo (or Flamenco) Ilenao, Perico 
(and Culebra if it be an island). 

Article VII. 
For and in consideration of the grants and cessions 
contained in the foregoing article, it is hereby stipulated 
and agreed that the United States shall allow or pay to 
the Republic of New Granada the full sum of 
dolrs. currency of the United States, and of the said sum 
of dolrs. the United States shall retain the sum of 



14 



dolrs. specified in the fifth article of this Convention, 
to be applied to the purposes in that article particularly 
designated, and the balance of dolrs. shall be 

paid to the Republic of New Granada, in the city of New 
York, within sixty days after the exchange of ratifications 
of this Convention. 

Akticle VIII. 

The present Convention shall be ratified by the Presi- 
dent of the United States, by and with the advice and 
consent thereof, ( sic, J and by the President of the Republic 
of New Granada with the consent and approbation of the 
Congress of the same, and the ratifications shall be 
exchanged in the city of Washington, within one year 
from the date of the signature thereof, or sooner if possible. 

In faith whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have 
signed and sealed these presents in the city of Bogota, on 
the in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 

hundred and fifty 

[N.B.— The four Propositions and the "Projet of a Convention" 
were withdrawn by the above-mentioned Plenipotentiaries or Com- 
missioners of the United States in the subsequent Conference held 
on the 12th of February.] 



MEMORANDUM 

Presented by the Plenipotentiaries oe New Granada to the Pleni- 
potentiaries of the United States, in the Official Conference 
held on the 12th of february. 

The four Propositions which the Honorable Messrs. 
Morse and Bowlin laid before the Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs on the 4th instant, which they expounded in their 
u Projet of a Convention" for the adjustment of claims of 
citizens of the United States against New Granada, and 
for settling other differences between the parties, are 
absolutely inadmissible on the part of the present Executive 
Government. 

Those propositions imply in reality a cession to the 
United States, as complete and gratuitous as it would be 



15 



unconstitutional and disgraceful, of the territory of the 
State of Panama; a cession that the one Government 
ought not to pretend to, or exact, nor can the other grant, 
in conformity with the principles on which the political 
institutions of the two Republics are based. 

If what constitutes or may constitute certain interna- 
tional arrangements indispensable, is the necessity and 
conveniency of preserving the interoceanic transit across 
the Isthmus of Panama free, safe, and open on the footing 
of a complete equality, for the individuals and trade of all 
nations, the plan proposed by Messrs. Morse and Bowlin, 
in the name of the Government of the United States, 
doe3 in nowise satisfy such necessity and conveniency. 
Were a plan of that kind adopted, the overwhelming 
influence of the United States, or rather the effective and 
constant interference of their Government, even by the 
medium of arms, in everything concerned with the transit 
across the Isthmus, would in fact constitute a privilege in 
favour of the Union, its citizens, and its political and 
mercantile interests. 

Several clauses of the " Projet of a Convention " stand 
at open variance with the engagements that this Republic 
has entered into in its contract with the Panama Railroad 
Company. 

Moreover, the propositions that have been made imply 
that New Granada is responsible to the United States for 
the events that happened at Panama on the 15th April, 
1856, and for their disastrous consequences ; whereas it 
has been proved, by the testimony of respectable and 
unbiassed witnesses, that those events sprang from the 
brutal conduct of a citizen of the United States towards a 
native of the country ; that they were aggravated by the 
support which other citizens of the United States gave to 
that individual, instead of endeavouring to have him 
arrested ; and that they became irremediable by the 
authorities and public force, owing to the obstinacy and 
passionate excitement of citizens of the United States. 



16 



The actual Executive Government considers this 
Republic to be irresponsible towards the United States for 
the events that have been indicated, and for the conse- 
quences thereof ; nor could it ever consent to the Govern- 
ment of the United States awarding conclusively on the 
question of responsibility, even if the notorious partiality 
which unfortunately characterises the data and reports on 
which that Government has had to base its views, should 
be overlooked. 

It is therefore impossible for the propositions that have 
been presented to serve as a basis of discussion for any 
arrangement ; and, consequently, the present Administra- 
tion believes itself justified in declining to take them 
under consideration. 

I 

However, as it would be of unquestionable utility that 
everything connected with the interoceanic transit across 
the Isthmus of Panama should be settled in a durable and 
satisfactory manner, so as to give to all nations equal 
rights and facilities, and an equally effectual protection to 
their citizens or subjects, as well as to their property or 
interests ; the undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the New 
Granadian Government have been instructed to initiate 
and carry on with the Honourable Plenipotentiaries of the 
Government of the United States, negotiations on these 
points, in which the principles of territorial sovereignty 
and of the perfect equality in the free transit for all 
nations are to be constantly kept in view. Thus the 
Administration that is to be installed under the direction 
of a new President on the 1st of April next, would find, 
readily prepared, the elements of a just and proper 
arrangement, marked with all the features of stability 
that are indispensable in the matter herein treated of ; 
one of which would seem to be the friendly intervention, 
in the same matter, of those Powers that are principally 
concerned in the freedom, equality, security and facility 
of the transit. 

Bogota, 12th February, 1857. 
Lino de Pombo. Florentino Gonzalez. 



17 



Legation of the U.S. A., &c. 

Bogota, February 13th, 1857. 

Hon. Mr. Lino de Pombo, and 
„ „ Florentino Gonzalez, Commissioners, &c, &c, &c. 

Gentlemen, — The written communication which we 
had the honour to receive at the first meeting of the several 
Commissioners, on the part of the Governments of New 
Granada and the United States of America, with a view 
to the settlement of the various questions growing out 
of the difficulties on the Isthmus of Panama, will probably 
bring to a very speedy termination the mission with 
which the undersigned have been charged by their 
Government, and induce the necessity of some other 
arbitrement. 

In order to relieve ourselves and our Government 
from the responsibilities which must necessarily follow the 
abrupt termination of a mission which the government of 
the United States had every reason to hope and wish 
could have closed, in a friendly manner, the several points 
which seemed likely to disturb the harmony of two sister 
republics, and avoid the necessity of measures not consonant 
with the principles and policy of our Government ; the 
Undersigned feel it due to themselves and to their country 
briefly to recapitulate the present state of the difficulties, 
in order that the world may know how the friendly 
disposition of our Government has been met, and that all 
the responsibility may fall where it belongs. 

It is well understood, that the several subjects of 
complaint on the part of the Government of the United 
States had been for some time under discussion between 
the Resident Minister of the United States, Mr. Bowlin, 
and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Pombo, without 
being able to come to any satisfactory conclusion. 

The Government of the United States, as a last 
resort, in the hope of terminating all these difficulties, 
associated one of the undersigned with the Resident 



18 



Minister, who were instructed to commence negotiations 
upon other bases ; Mr. Morse was urged to make e very- 
exertion to reach Bogota before the meeting of the New 
Granadian Congress, and did arrive in Bogota five or six 
days previous to its meeting. — Every means consistent with 
diplomatic etiquette was had to obtain an audience of the 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, before the issuing of the 
Executive message and the report of the Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs. — The reason for desiring this audience 
must be obvious, and the American Commissioners 
were pained to find, that no opportunity would be 
afforded them to express the views and wishes of their 
Government until it was too late. — In their official com- 
munications to the Congress, the President and the 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs took such a decided opinion 
against the claims of the Government of the United 
States as to make it a question whether it was worth 
while to go through the form of presenting their views 
and propositions, and which once for all closed the door 
against any amicable arrangement. 

One would have supposed that a government really 
anxious to avoid such consequences as will follow the 
failure of the present commission would have been at least 
disposed to hear, before cutting off all hopes of negotiation. 

The Undersigned could scarcely believe, and did not 
until the official documents were published, that the 
Executive part of the government would have at once cut 
the Gordian knot, and proclaim to the Congress and the 
world, that they did not, and would not, hold themselves 
responsible for the massacre of American citizens, and the 
plunder of more than half a million of American property 
at Panama on the 15th of April last. 

We expected to find either in the Executive message, 
or in the report of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, some 
convincing and overwhelming facts which must have so 
completely satisfied the minds of the Government of New 
Granada, and to justify the position so confidently assumed. 



19 



We looked in vain in either of these documents for 
any tangible and reliable facts. In the report of the 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, we read, with feelings of 
surprise, a ridiculous account of a certain Jack Oliver, in 
the hearsay evidence, getting into a difficulty with a native, 
and of his having fired a revolver, without hitting or 
injuring any person whatever, — if there was any such 
person, whether he was an American or not, all depends 
upon hearsay testimony ; but the facts are, that all the 
murders and robberies were committed some hours after 
the difficulty of Jack Oliver with the native about a water 
melon. 

The government of the United States has taken an 
immense amount of testimony, not only of American gen- 
tlemen, officers of the government, officers of the Railroad, 
but the evidence of persons of almost every nation, 
Englishmen, Frenchmen, Irishmen, Germans and New 
Granadians, who were present and saw and heard what 
they stated under the sanctity of an oath, and their testi- 
mony leads to the irresistible conclusion that the attack, 
murder, and plunder of the passengers on the Railroad was 
a pre-concerted movement. That the Governor of Panama 
and the police, whose duty it was, under the treaty and the 
charter of the Railroad, to protect and defend the lives 
and the property of the travellers, were both participants 
in the disgraceful attack upon not only unarmed men, but 
women and children. In using the word unarmed, the 
undersigned are justified by the evidence in saying, that 
many of the Americans had revolvers, but that they had 
discharged them at Aspinwall, which alone can account for 
the astonishing fact, that while eighteen Americans were 
certainly killed and forty or fifty wounded, but one or two 
natives at most were seriously injured. This evidence the 
undersigned have, and has been offered to be exhibited 
to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and can and will be 
exhibited here in Bogota to any one desiring to learn the 
real state of facts, 
c 



20 



With these facts before them, language would fail them 
to express their surprise, at the examination of the testimony 
which accompanies the report of the Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs, the most important of which would seem to be 
that of Count de Nollent, the French Consul at Panama. 
In the second paragraph of his letter are these words : — 
66 El Consul de Francin no ha sido testigo presencial de 
ninguno de los hechos que tuvieron lugar en el terreno de 
la lucha." " The Consul of France was not an eyewitness 
of any of the facts which took place on the scene of 
difficulty." A witness who, in any civilized country, should 
begin to give his evidence with these words, would be 
ordered to leave the stand by any justice of the peace who 
had ever opened a single law book. 

That the opinions of a man on hearsay evidence, in 
which he himself admits that there were other and con- 
tradictory accounts, should be permitted to outweigh the 
volumes of testimony of persons of many nations, the 
most of them equal in every respect in standing to Mr. 
Nollent, is " strange, is passing strange." The undersigned 
do not profess to know the rules of evidence in New 
Granada, but they do know that in every other country in 
the world, such evidence is utterly worthless, and would 
not be received in any court of justice. 

Nor can the Undersigned attach any more weight to 
the hearsay and opinions of Mr. Perry, the English consul, 
however respectable he may be thought, when he seeks to 
excuse or justify the murderous assault upon women and 
children, most complacently saying, " Due allowance 
should be made from the state of excitement on the part 
of the populace from the constant acts of brutality they 
have received from the lower class of California passengers." 

Nor can they see the slightest bearing on the case, in 
the very remarkable and only fact which he relates, that 
his daughter, the Chancellor of the French consulate, and 
himself, met this same J ack Oliver drunk on the same day, 
and it was with great difficulty they could get out of 
his way. 



21 



We have .also seen (not officially) the report of the 
Governor of Panama, and he coincides with these two 
gentlemen ; however respectable he may be considered, 
when it is shown by gentlemen as respectable as himself, that j 
he is deeply implicated in these riotous scenes, which it was ) 
his duty to prevent, neither his statement, his report, or 
his oath can be received in a matter in which he is per- 
sonally interested. 

Of such testimony as the parties concerned it is presumed 
any number may be had. 

Assuming then, that this constitutes the strongest 
testimony to make out a case for the Congress of New 
Granada, whatever weight may be attached to it here, we 
apprehend that an impartial public will pronounce it utterly 
worthless by itself, even if it was not directly contradicted 
by the testimony of a large number of impartial witnesses 
of different nations taken under the solemnity of an oath ; 
but we are not disposed to argue a question which has been 
discussed by the Resident Minister of the United States, 
and which has met the approbation of his Government. 

If the Government of New Granada has satisfied itself 
upon the best authority and taken the position that no 
indemnity is due at all, and will not even receive any pro- 
positions to settle amicably with the United States for the 
loss of many of her citizens, and an immense amount of 
valuable property, some of which was shipped off in broad 
daylight, by boats from Panama, the Government of the 
United States has also coolly and impartially caused an 
examination to be made by a special commissioner and the 
resident minister near this Republic ; and it too has come 
to a conclusion and taken its position, founded upon direct, 
positive, unequivocal and legal testimony, in which neither 
the official reports of parties implicated, nor the hearsay 
evidence or opinions of any one (no matter how respectable) 
have been relied on, and that conclusion and position is 
that/a number of unoffending American citizens have been 
inhumanly butchered, and a very large amount of property 
c 2 



22 



destroyed, for which the Government of New Granada is 
justly and truly bound by the laws of nations, without 
reference to the treaty, the charter or the contract with 
v the Panama Railroad Company, y&nd the Government of 
the United States has appointed the undersigned Com- 
missioners to meet those of New Granada to settle the 
amount of that indemnity, and to fix upon the manner of 
payment. 

When our Government shall learn that at the first 
interview with the Commissioners on the part of New 
Granada, they are stopped by a distinct and explicit 
statement, that no idemnity is due, and that that is not a 
subject for negociation, and that the Government of New 
Granada, has disposed of that question in a summary and 
ex-parte manner, it will be for them, and not us, to deter- 
mine what other means of redress, the dignity and honour 
of the nation demand. 

In the hurry of examining the propositions of the United 
States, the Commissioners of New Granada have entirely 
misunderstood one of them ; we neither proposed nor do 
we want a gratuitous, dishonourable or unconstitutional 
cession of the State of Panama, or any part of it, but 
simply that the people of Panama and Aspinwall (Colon) 
should have the authority of erecting a municipal govern- 
ment, which shall for the future secure that safety and 
protection to the transit route which the treaty, the 
laws, and the charter of the Eailroad Company intended 
to provide for, but which the Government of New 
Granada has been unable to accomplish, and which has 
imposed upon the United States the necessity of keeping 
a strong naval force near Panama and Aspinwall (Colon) 
to prevent a repetition of the bloody scenes of April last. 

To the proposition contained in the latter part of your 
communication, in relation to the security of the route 
across the Isthmus, we have only to say tha,t the United 
States have now in the most solemn forms, by treaty, by 
the charter and contract with the Railroad Company, 



23 



and the laws of the Republic, every possible guarantee for 
the security of the transit route which New Granada can 
give, but that the government is either unable or unwil- 
ling to make good that guarantee, and that to-day, for its 
open violation by her citizens, she peremptorily refuses 
even to entertain a proposition to settle the liabilities./^ 

In conclusion, we beg lea ye most respectfully to remind 
the Commissioners of New Granada that if they persist 
in the position which they have taken, the entire respon- 
sibility will fall on their country and themselves. — They 
have closed the door against any future negotiation, they 
have brought the two governments to a direct issue, and 
in their absolute refusal to treat, have forced upon the 
United States, the alternative either to stand degraded 
before the world and its own fellow -citizens, as unable or 
unwilling to protect their lives and property — or to take 
into their own hands the adjustment of the indemnity, the 
means and measure of redress, and to provide for the safety 
of her citizens on the transit of the Isthmus. 

The undersigned still hope and believe, that a just 
regard for the preservation of amity between the two 
countries will induce the Commissioners of New Granada 
to reconsider the hasty decision, which was made without 
even hearing the Commissioners of the United States, and 
entertaining the conviction, that when the importance of 
the issues be fully appreciated, that the love of justice will 
outweight all pride of consistency, 

We have the honour to be, gentlemen, very respectfully, 
your obedient servants, 

Isaac E. Morse. James B. Bowlin. 

(Translation.) 

To the Honourable Messrs. Isaac E. Morse and James B. Bowlin, 
Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America, &c, &c, &o. 

Bogota, 23d February, 1857. 
Gentlemen, — The undersigned, Plenipotentiaries of 
New Granada for discussing with the Honourable Pleni- 
potentiaries of the United States the international questions 



24 



connected with the Isthmus of Panama, have the honour 
to answer the note, dated the 13th instant, which was 
received at the Office for Foreign Affairs in the afternoon 
of the 14th, and which they were pleased to address to 
them with reference to the " Memorandum " presented by 
the undersigned in the conference held on the 12th 
instant, declaring inadmissible as a basis of discussion 
for the settlement of the said questions, the four 
propositions set forth in a u Projet of Convention" 
exhibited on the 4th instant by the Honourable Messrs. 
Morse and Bowlin to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 

It is in the first place the bounden duty of the under- 
signed, in like manner as the Plenipotentiaries of the United 
States consider it to be theirs, according to the tenor of the 
beginning of their note, here to demonstrate the regularity 
and the justice of the conduct of their Government, as well 
as their own, in the business matter of the present corres- 
pondence, so that whatever may be the upshot of the same, 
they can at no time be accused of having under grave 
circumstances forgotten what the legitimate interest of the 
Republic required of them, nor of having endangered from 
false ideas of honour, or prejudiced feelings, the valued and 
important relations with that great nation which is called 
to preside over the destinies of both Americas. 

On the arrival at Bogota of the Honourable Mr. Morse, 
there was no affair whatever pending or under discussion 
with the United States Legation, relating to the Isthmus 
of Panama. The question of postage upon the interoceanic 
correspondence, with regard to which it had been demon- 
strated that the arguments drawn from the existing treaty 
between the two republics and from the contract with the 
Railroad Company were perfectly valueless, had been referred 
to the Granadian Minister at Washington, and it was known 
that on the 22d of November he had acquainted the 
Secretary of State with having received his instructions. 
In the question regarding the national tax for tonnage 
chargeable in the ports of Panama and Colon, no serious 



25 



controversy had been established, and the Executive 
Government had determined upon proposing to Congress 
[as it has already done] the total suppression of that tax. 
As regards the events of the 15th April of 1856, the 
Honourable Mr. Bowlin having proceeded to Panama, on 
a commission of investigation, on behalf of his Government, 
immediately after having sent in to the Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs his two notes of a general character, dated 
respectively the 23d and 30th of June, which were imme- 
diately answered, neither the Legation make any further 
advances in the affair, nor the New Granadian Executive 
considered it to be its duty to anticipate explanations, all 
correspondence remaining suspended in expectation of the 
new orders which were to be transmitted from the United 
States. In this sense, and in no other, can be taken that 
clause of the note of the Plenipotentiaries which states 
that the Resident Minister and the Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs, after a lengthened discussion, had not been able to 
arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. 

On the 27th of January, the Honourable Mr. Morse 
presented his credentials, five days previous to the meeting 
of the Legislative Chambers, and on the 23d he was pre- 
sented to the Chief of the Executive Government. Far 
from soliciting an immediate audience, which would not 
have been refused to him, he agreed without hesitation, 
and even officiously adding that he was aware of the press 
of congressional business upon the members of the Admi- 
nistration, to the indication made to him by the Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, on taking leave of him at the Govern- 
ment House, that he would invite him for a conference 
[which took place on the 4th] at the latest, for Saturday, 
the 7th of February. But even had Mr. Morse or Mr. 
Bowlin availed themselves of any opportunity previous to 
the 1st instant, the day in which Congress met, one of 
which presented itself in the unofficial visit which previous 
to that day the Secretary for Foreign Affairs made to the 
former, and in the course of which they conversed together 



26 



for a long period without any witnesses, [until the British 
subject Mr. William Wills came in also on a visit], to 
explain the views and wishes of his Government, it is 
nearly certain that neither in the Presidential Message nor 
in the general report of the said Secretary would the 
questions relating to Panama have been treated in a 
different manner, but frankly and determinedly, for the 
following reasons. 

. In the first place, because the Executive Government 
was acquainted with the Message from the President of 
the United States to the Congress on the 2d of December, 
in which, after having given information notoriously inexact 
upon the tonnage and interoceanic postage questions, and 
going on to speak of the Panama tragedy of 1 5th April, 
he says — " I caused full investigation of that event to be 
made, and the result shows satisfactorily that complete 
responsibility for what occurred attaches to the Government 
of New Granada." By these phrases, added to various 
other passages in the Message which constitute a severe 
act of accusation against our country, it was proclaimed to 
the Congress of the Union and to the world, that New Granada 
teas responsible for the assassinations and robberies committed 
upon citizens of the United States ; the President thereby 
assuming a decided position regarding the North American 
claims. It apeared natural and indispensable to oppose 
with equal solemnity Message to Message, in rectification 
of the facts and in vindication of the national honour, the 
charges being unjust ; it is therefore not to be wondered 
at, that in the presence of the distinguised citizen com- 
missioned to notify to the Government of New Granada 
the sentence of its culpability, pronounced in the face of 
all nations by one of the interested parties, and to exact 
indemnity and security, that this Government should also 
take up a decided position and energetically lift up its voice 
and declare under the safeguard of sufficient proof its 
irresponsibility. 

In the second place, the proofs collected were not only 



27 



sufficient, but conclusive and unimpeachable ; and the 
Executive Magistrate in fulfilling his duty of reporting to 
the Congress, at the opening of its sessions, the course and 
state of the affair, felt called upon to do so, with the fidelity 
becoming the elevated position in which the Constitution 
of the Republic has placed him in order to watch over its 
general interests. 

The four propositions presented on the 4th by the 
Plenipotentiaries of the United States, were literally as 
follow : 

1st. " To erect the cities of Panama and Aspinwall 
(Colon) into two municipalities, independent and neutral, to 
govern themselves, with a territory ten miles wide on each 
side of the Railroad. The perfect freedom guaranteed, 
sovereignty unchanged. — Other nations to be invited into 
the guarantees." 

2nd. " To transfer to the States the two little clusters 
of Islands in the bay of Panama in full sovereignty for a 
naval station, and all reserved rights and privileges in the 
Panama Railroad charter for an ample consideration." 

3rd. " To pay the damages occasioned by the late 
Panama riot." 

4th. " The sum to be paid by the United States." 

Each of them had at the foot explanatory commentaries, 
in which it was endeavoured to show that the two 
first were convenient and even advantageous to New 
Granada ; with respect to the third, to prove the respon- 
sibility of the Republic ; and to demonstrate with regard 
to the events of the 15th April, that we should abide by 
the proofs obtained by the agents of the United States 
Government, upon the supposition that, on our part, not 
only had we failed to prosecute any enquiry, but that we 
had thrown obstacles in the way of the investigations 
carried on by said agents. But the true explanation of 
the proposition was to be found in the M projet of a Con- 
vention," likewise presented, and moreover the Plenipo- 
tentiaries made, during the conference they held with the 



28 



Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whatever additional observa- 
tions they thought proper, without mentioning, however, 
or offering any other document. 

All this was taken into the serious consideration of the 
Executive Government : so that the answer given eight 
days afterwards by the undersigned, both being members 
of the Administration, in the conference of the 12th with 
the " Memorandum" of the same date, cannot, in justice, 
be called precipitate, nor can it be said to have been given 
without at least hearing the Plenipotentiaries of the 
United States. 

The undersigned, acting conformably to their instruc- 
tions, declared the propositions made to be inadmissible : 
but they did not close the door on all farther negociation. 

They declared that the propositions signified the cession 
of the entire territory of the State of Panama, inasmuch 
as that, under a show of the municipal admininistration 
of the strip of land comprising the Railway from one 
extreme to the other, and with most ample privileges 
placed apparently under certain local corporations, the 
greater part of these would be formed of individuals 
foreign to the country, and would in fact, according to 
the Projet of Convention, be under the dependency of 
the United States Consuls and under the tutelage and 
pressure of the land and sea forces of that Republic ; for 
the Islands in the bay of Panama, being occupied by the 
United States, some of which are within gun shot of the 
city, that dependency, tutelage, and pressure would be 
effective and constant ; and likewise, because the territory 
of the State of Panama, being inaccessible at present and 
for many years to come to the rest of New Granada, 
except by sea, the foreign power that should gain a footing 
thereon would in fact be the possessor and ruling power 
of the same. 

The cession would be gratuitous and dishonourable. 
Pecuniary compensation is tendered, or purchase money, 
amount as yet undeterminate, in exchange for territorial 



29 



seigniorage and for rights and reserves on the Railroad. 
Whatever may be the sum promised, and from which 
deduction would be made for the 15th of April, the 
remainder could never represent the value assignable to the 
territory of the whole State of Panama, and above all to 
the marvellous bridge thrown by nature between the two 
oceans ; nor with millions could New Granada redeem 
herself from the infamy and consequent ruin to which she 
would condemn herself by selling for money, peopled 
territories, making foreigners against their w: 11 of many 
thousands of her citizens, and opening the door t uominion 
and conquest by a foreign power. 

The cession would be inconstitutional. The constitution 
of the Republic designated its territory as independent of 
all foreign dominion : declared that citizenship could neither 
be forfeited or suspended except as a penalty, according to 
the laws : and guaranteed to all citizens direct suffrage in 
elections, which the Projet of Convention would pretend 
to limit in Panama and Colon to certain proprietors of 
landed and other property. 

The undersigned, declared that the plan proposed by 
the Plenipotentiaries for permanently securing liberty of 
transit from sea to sea, by the Isthmus of Panama, does 
not satisfy its legitimate object, and they proved it. The 
Government of the United States wishes to become the 
privileged owner of the interoceanic ways : they only offer 
the transit to such nations as may agree to the neutrality 
of the territorial strip of land, acknowledging its municipal 
governments, and not upon the footing of perfect equality. 
The Government of New Granada proposes a negotiation 
that, giving to the citizens of the United States and to 
their property the effective protection they desire, and the 
safety which they say is now wanting, with no other reason 
but the suspicion consequent on the faults committed by 
themselves, should extend to all nations the same benefits 
and the same advantages, leaving sacred the principle of 
territorial sovereignty ; and here it may be added, ensuring 



30 



to the State of Panama, for its own proper administration, 
the revenue now so much wanted owing to the extreme 
liberality of the franchises granted. This proposal has not 
been properly appreciated : it implies, and so it must be 
understood, the participation of other Powers in the 
negotiation. 

They also declared that various clauses of the ic Projet 
of Convention" were in opposition to the contract made 
with the Panama Railroad Company. That, for instance, 
which authorises the Consuls of the United States, in 
certain cases, to establish and collect taxes upon the Rail- 
road and upon the passengers and property passing by the 
same ; also that clause which would attribute to the United 
States full and exclusive power, either by charter or in any 
other manner, to provide for the construction of any other 
Railroad, within the territorial district of the existing one. 

And they declared finally, in the name of their Govern- 
ment, that they consider New Granada not responsible for 
the events of Panama of the 15th April and their lament- 
able consequences, and cannot consent that the Government 
of the United States should decide the question : the 
which comprehends a formal refusal of the indemnity 
demanded. The motives of refusal, are to be found 
expressed in a few words in the " Memorandum" itself, and 
shall here be extended. This is not a pecuniary question, 
but a question of principle. 

The capital point is, the antecedents of the events and 
their immediate origin. The inhabitants of Panama were 
predisposed against the Californian emigration, on account 
of its generally brutal behaviour, and still more predisposed 
against the new species of adventurers, whose breeding 
place, whose recruiting station, whose arsenal of resources, 
whose starting point, and whose point d* appui are the 
United States, and who have improved and brought anew 
upon the scene the ancient filibusterism. This unfavourable 
predisposition existed principally amongst the masses of 
the poorer class, who were frequently the victims of the 



31 



outrages committed by the passing emigrants, and amongst 
a great number of destitute strangers, brought from the 
West Indies and other places as labourers on the Railroad, 
and afterwards turned adrift by the Company to starve. 
Such predisposition was the natural effect of experience, 
and whilst it existed, nothing was more easy or inevitable 
than an explosion of popular rage and vengeance whenever 
any new excess should provoke it. This is what, first the 
United States Consul at Panama, then the Minister Mr. 
Bowlin and the Commissioner Mr. Corwine, and now the 
honourable Plenipotentiaries, have styled premeditation or 
previous concert. New Granada is not to blame that the 
elements of a sudden and fierce conflagration should have 
been thus accumulated. 

A party of Californian filibusters lands at Panama, not 
having been able to disembark in Nicaragua; then the 
train arrives from Colon with some hundreds of the 
dreaded passengers or emigrants, and one of these savages 
outrages a native, fires his pistol at another without any 
justifiable cause, and is supported and protected by those 
of his party. The hour for retaliation, fixed by Providence, 
sounded, without New Granada being at all to blame. 

The Plenipotentiaries present, as a ridiculous hearsay 
account, the initiatory episode in which Jack Oliver, a 
citizen of the United States, figures as aggressor. But 
three citizens of the United States, eye-witnesses and 
victims of the riot, by name G. B. Wright, P. B. Reading, 
and W. C. Waters, pointed him out by name, in an account 
of the affray published under their signatures in the San 
Francisco Herald of the 4th May ; and a French merchant, 
M. Bernard, mentioned in the certified statement of the 
- Consul of France, Count De Nollent, saw him fire the 
pistol. This unimpeachable testimony is sufficient to prove 
that there is no hearsay account, and that the conclusion 
the Commissioner Mr. Corwine comes to upon this point, 
as well as the previous assertion made by the Legation of 
the United States, to the effect that the pistol was dis- 



32 



charged by a native as a preconcerted signal for the out- 
break, are contrary to the facts of the case. 

With respect to posterior events, the legitimate conse- 
quence of the previous ones, according to the state of 
irritation that prevailed, some charge, although not abso- 
lute, might be brought against the Eepublic, if the 
authorities had remained indifferent or had not proceeded 
as quickly as possible, and with all the means at their 
disposal, to quell the tumult and render protection to lives 
and property. But the contrary is proved by abundant 
and trustworthy evidence, it being testified particularly by 
the Consuls of Equator, France, England, and Peru at 
Panama, who must be supposed to be impartial, admitting 
at the same time, that, with regard to those circumstances 
which did not fall under their own immediate notice, they 
collected the most veridical information at the moment, 
when it was not possible there should have been any con- 
fabulation in order to disfigure the truth. Many witnesses, 
both native and foreigners, have been judicially examined 
at different times, first as it being the duty of the public 
functionaries, and afterwards at the requisition of the 
Attorney-General of the nation, and the depositions taken, 
not only justify the Governor of the State, but also all his 
subordinates, including the police. 

With regard to the Governor, who exerted himself 
with lively zeal to appease the natives, and who had 
managed to contain them, as also to prevent the discharge 
of a cannon upon the heap of passengers that had taken 
refuge in the steamer Taboga, and who strove in vain to 
make his voice be heard by those who were defending 
themselves in one or two edifices, scarcely is there any one 
now who would censure him for any other thing, than for 
having authorized the police to fire in order to take the 
Railroad Station, if they should themselves be fired upon, 
as was done ; and this, after that the Governor himself, the 
United States Consul, and some of those who accompanied 
thefn, had been fired upon by the North Americans : that 



33 



order, under such circumstances, was sufficiently excusable, 
even if its legality and fitness be not acquiesced in. And 
with regard to the police agents or gens d'armes, we will 
limit ourselves to saying, that upon examination as eye- 
witnesses, by the Prefect of Panama, in the first days of 
September, three respectable citizens of the United States, 
Messrs. Allan Mc Lane, David M. Corwine, and William 
Nelson, upon this question : u If they saw any individuals 
of the gendarmerie rob, or wound intentionally any pas- 
senger, when and where, a ad if they communicated it to 
any authority ?" they did not make any other charge 
against them than that of having fired in order to take 
possession of the Station, and Mr. Nelson stated that he 
had heard say that some gens dJarmes were afterwards 
offering for sale the pistols and watch of one of the victims, 
the French subject M. Dubois. 

It is not a rational charge against the police, that 
simultaneously with them, many of the rioters entered the 
Station. Who could contain, in such moments, an 
infuriated populace ? Enough was done, notwithstanding 
their small number, to place in safety so many of the 
persons who were shut up there. 

To recognise on the part of New Granada responsibility 
towards the United States for the occurrences of the 15th 
April, 1856, and consequently the obligation to indemnify 
them for the damages and losses, would be the height of 
folly on the part of the Government of this country : and 
much less after that the blood of Granadian citizens had 
been spilt owing to the manifest aggression of North 
American citizens : much less, when in consequence of 
those events, this Republic has been so atrociously calum- 
niated in the face of all nations, and has suffered so much 
in its moral and material interests : much less, she beincr 
the one that has a right to exact reparation for the dis- 
respectful proceedings of Consul Ward, of Captain Bailey, 
and of Commodore Mervine, official agents of the United 
States Government, and compensation in favour of the 



34 



national victims in favour of the city of Panama, and in 
favour of the inoffensive foreigners who in any way suffered 
in that catastrophe. 

Our brethren the Chilians and Mexicans are hurled forth 
from their possessions by sheer force ; they are sacked* 
hanged, hunted down like wild beasts in California, with- 
out safeguard or reparation : American citizens who have 
seized the reins of power, after the manner of conquerors, 
shoot, confiscate property, and level even to their founda- 
tions the cities in Nicaragua : and should New Granada, 
the classic land of patriotism, villify itself by consenting to 
pay for the outrages perpetrated upon it ! 

Nor is it possible that this can be the intention of the 
Government at Washington. Five or six days after the 
deplorable events at Panama, there was formed there, by 
several hot annexionists or speculators, a plan for tergiver- 
sating the facts to the prejudice of New Granada : and this 
plan has been carried into execution, and having met with 
voluntary or deceived auxiliaries, has had the effect of 
concealing the truth from the President of the United 
States. The undersigned Plenipotentiaries are bound to 
believe that, in the present grave question, that Govern- 
ment is not animated by any spirit of ill-will towards this 
Republic : they are bound to suppose that, it becoming 
better informed with regard to those events and with regard 
to the specific causes of what it calls insecurity of the 
transit across the Isthmus of Panama, it would have acted 
in a truly friendly manner with the Granadian Legation 
near it, or with the Executive Government by means of 
its own in Bogota, in order to avoid fresh collisions between 
the passengers by the railway and the natives, and to 
remove all motive of fear and difficulty. One of the 
means, considering the immense flow of passengers and 
treasure four times a month, would be to agree in the per- 
manence of some vessel of war of the United States in the 
bay of Panama, with instructions to assist the Governor of 
the State whenever he might request it, for the protection 



35 



of the transit : another, not to place obstacles in the way 
of collecting certain moderate taxes upon the transit, which 
are necessary for the support of the public administration : 
and lastly, another, to accept and support the idea of a 
negotiation between the two Governments and those of 
England and France, which might lead to a complete 
guarantee,and without prejudice to the territorial sovereignty, 
of the freedom and safe frequenting of the interoceanic 
route, upon the basis of perfect equality for all nations. 

Although the undersigned have not authority to treat 
upon questions of indemnification in favour of the United 
States, they ought not to be silent in the present Note, 
touching the pecuniary charges which it is pretended to 
impose upon New Granada. 

The Railroad Company, whose principal chest, existing 
in the Panama station, was not plundered on the 15th of 
April, and which suffered very little injury in that edifice, 
appears to claim exorbitant sums for damages, although the 
transit of treasure, passengers, and merchandise suffered no 
subsequent abatement. That this enterprise, so favoured 
by the Republic, should wish to avail itself of its misfortunes 
by such demands, is absolutely inconceivable. 

The Plenipotentiaries say in their note, that the citizens 
of the United States lost an immense amount of property, 
part of which was embarked and taken from Panama in 
boats, in broad daylight. Such an assertion would at 
once have no value, unless upon proofs that those who 
witnessed such embarkation or abstraction of stolen goods, 
denounced the fact fruitlessly to the authorities ; but from 
the depositions of September already cited, of Messrs. 
McLane, D. M. Corwirie and Nelson, it appears : 1st. 
That previously to the riot, there had been embarked in a 
launch, which had not been touched by any one, the mail 
bags and all the packages addressed for California, which 
had arrived in the passenger train : two car loads of 
luggage, belonging to these, only remaining : and, 2ndly. 
That the train which was expected, which was ordered 



36 



back to Colon, and which was therefore preserved without 
injury, contained five hundred packages of goods and a 
car of luggage. It is evident, moreover, that the eating- 
house and the two hotels or stores of trifling value, where 
the robberies took place, could not contain that immense 
amount of property, valued at more than half-a-million of 
dollars. 

It is also necessary to say something about the number 
of victims, which has been so much exaggerated. The 
Plenipotentiaries of the United States say that " while 
eighteen Americans were certainly killed and forty or fifty 
wounded, but one or two natives, at most, were seriously 
injured." The total number of killed in the Panama 
tumult, or who died from that immediate cause, was 
eighteen persons^ all men, and one individual was seriously 
wounded, who embarked for California. This point is 
fully established. Amongst the eighteen persons was a 
Frenchman, M. Dubois, and there were also some natives, 
as is proved by various accounts. One single North 
American of the Californian passengers, by the steamer 
Cortes, named Joseph Stokes, killed w T ith his revolver two 
of the natives, in the attack which these made with stones 
and cutlasses upon the Pacific Hotel, whilst pursuing 
Oliver and his defenders : and before he died, he must 
have wounded others, for one of his companions, who 
speaks of his heroic deeds in the " California Chronicle" 
of San Francisco, of the 5th of May, says : " I think 
Stokes' shots — six in number — all took effect, for he was 
deliberate, though he fired rapidly" ; and after relating 
that he reloaded his revolver at the Station and sallied 
forth again, adds ; " the natives gathered around, and 
Stokes advanced and fired with his six-shooter, taking 
deliberate aim. He fired slower the second time than 
at first." 

As the New Granadian Government, according as it 
appears from this note and the (i Memorandum" of 
the 12th does not refuse, but rather, on the contrary, 



37 



seeks to negociate and treat relative to the complete and 
lasting security and freedom of the interoceanic transit 
across the Isthmus of Panama, but upon equitable as well 
as liberal bases, the undersigned consider that the Plenipo- 
tentiaries of the United States are not in the position to 
suppose their Government under the alternative of 
degradation or violence, of which they speak, for the non- 
admission of the propositions presented up to this date. 

In order no longer to defer the present reply, and not 
to risk overstepping therewith the limits of moderation, 
which they have traced out for themselves, the undersigned 
abstain from making other important commentaries, which 
the Note of the 13th would suggest. They conclude 
therefore, by placing at the disposal of the Plenipoten- 
tiaries of the United States, for their inspection, all the 
documents relative to the Panama occurrences, which have 
been collected at the Foreign Office ; and manifest to them, 
that with that object and with any other conducing to 
throw light upon the disagreeable questions pending, and 
which might lead them to a decorous and pacific settlement, 
they are disposed to accept the invitations to confer, which 
may be made to them. 

The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of New Granada 
avail themselves of this opportunity to present to the 
honourable Messrs. Morse and Bowlin the homage of their 
respect. 

Lino de Pombo. Florentino Gonzalez. 



Legation of the United States. 

Bogota, Feb. 26th, 1857. 

To the Honourables Messrs. Lino de Pombo and Florentino Gonzalfz, 
Commissioners on the part of New Granada, &c, &c. 

Gentlemen, — The undersigned Commissioners on the 
part of the United States of America, have the honour to 
acknowledge the receipt of your communication of 23d 
instant. 

d 2 



38 



It is with pain they are compelled to perceive, that the 
friendly mission of their Government must be entirely 
fruitless, and that the door is closed by the Commissioners 
of New Granada. The positions assumed in the u Memo- 
randum" of the 12th instant, are all maintained and 
reiterated in the following decided language : — " Los 
Ct infrascritos, obrando conforme a sus instrucciones, decla- 
"raron inadmisibles las proposiciones hechas; pero no 
" cerraron la puerta para toda negociacion." — " The under- 
signed, acting in conformity to their instructions, declared 
the propositions inadmissible ; but did not shut the door to 
every kind of negotiation." What other negotiation may 
have been alluded to, we are at a loss to understand. The 
four propositions with which the undersigned were charged 
by their Government, after having been examined and 
commented on, are declared to be inadmissible, and the 
only inference which could possibly be drawn from the 
disclaimer qualifying the absolute refusal to negotiate upon 
any of the four propositions, is that there were some other 
questions at issue, between the two Governments, not 
included in these four propositions, because the substance 
of the entire Convention proposed, is to obtain indemnity 
for the past, and security for the future. 

Near the close of your communication we find the key 
to the true meaning, which seems to be, that while New 
Granada refuses positively to treat with the United States 
upon the subject of indemnity for the past and security 
for the future, " the idea of a negotiation between the two 
Governments and those of England and France, which 
might lead to a complete guarantee without prejudice to 
the territorial sovereignty, of the liberty and free use of the 
interoceanic way, on the basis of perfect equality of all 
nations," is tendered as the base of another and different 
negotiation. 

To this we can only say, that at present the road is 
owned by American citizens, and much the largest portion 
(propably nine-tenths) of the passengers and commerce 



39 



belong to the United States. It is not within our instruc- 
tions to enter upon any new base of negotiations, in which 
England, France, or any other nations of the world are to 
decide what guarantees are sufficient for the safety of the 
property and lives of our citizens. 

Indeed, we may as well say, once for all, that our 
Government has now every possible guarantee which New 
Granada can possibly offer, and finding that she is either 
unable or unwilling to enforce those guarantees, or give 
such protection as by the treaty and the charter of the 
Railroad Company she is pledged to do; the United States, 
as the guardian and protector of the three (sic) passengers 
who pass monthly over the route, must have something 
more tangible than paper pledges and written contracts, 
which can only give rise to useless and endless discussion. 

At the close of this commission, we have only to add 
further, that the case having arrived as contemplated in 
our instructions, we have to make a demand from the 
Government of New Granada, for the immediate payment 
of a sum, which has been reduced to the lowest possible 
amount, for reasons which must be obvious, as the price of 
indemnity for the loss of property stolen and destroyed on 
the Isthmus of Panama on the 15th of April, 1856, by 
citizens of New Granada. We have the honour to enclose 
a copy of our letter under the instructions of our Govern- 
ment to the Honourable M. Pombo, Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs; and to renew to the Commissioners of New 
Granada our most respectful consideration. 

Isaac E. Morse. James B. Bowlin. 



Legation of the United States. 

Bogota, February 27th, 1857. 

Honourable Lino de Pombo, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, &c. 

Sir, — The entire failure of the Commissioners appointed 
by the United States, to come to any satisfactory under- 
standing with the Commissioners of New Granada, or 



40 



even any agreement upon a basis of negotiation ; — it 
becomes our duty, under the instructions of our Govern- 
ment, to demand the payment of the sum of four hundred 
thousand dollars, as an indemnity to our fellow-citizens 
for loss of property taken or destroyed by citizens of New- 
Granada on the Isthmus of Panama, on the 15th of April, 
1856. — Although the sum claimed and proved to have been 
stolen and destroyed, amounts to much more than 
half-a-million of dollars, for reasons which we trust will be 
appreciated, our Government, in a spirit of great liberality, 
has placed its ultimatum at the very lowest possible figure. 

We have the honour to be very respectfully, your most 
obedient servants, 

Isaac E. Morse. James B. Bowlin. 



( Tj anslation.) 

Office for Foreign Affairs. 

Bogota, February 23d, 1857. 

The undersigned, Secretary of State, laid before the 
Chief of the Administration, the Note which the Honorables 
Mr. Morse and Mr. Bowlin were pleased to address to 
him yesterday, in their capacity of Commissioners or 
Plenipotentiaries of the United States with regard to the 
Panama questions. 

They therein inform the undersigned, that in accordance 
with their instructions, and in consequence of not having 
been able to arrive at a satisfactory understanding with 
the Plenipotentiaries of New Granada, not even with 
respect to a basis of negotiation, they have to exact the 
payment of four hundred thousand dollars, a sum fixed as 
an ultimatum, and in a spirit of great liberality, by their 
Government, as an indemnity in favour of their fellow- 
countrymen for losses of property stolen or destroyed in 



41 



the Isthmus of Panama, on the 15th day of April, 1856, 
by citizens of this country. 

In reply to the said Note, the undersigned declares in 
the name of his Government and in a solemn manner : 
that the Executive Power, for the reasons already 
manifested, in the " Memorandum" of the 12th, and in 
the official Note of the 23d of the New Granadian 
Plenipotentiaries, considers the Republic irresponsible 
towards the United States for the occurrences at Panama 
of the 15th of April; and consequently it cannot lend its 
consent to the demand for idemnification made upon it, 
whatever may be the amount at which the Government of 
the Union may be pleased to estimate it. It has already 
been stated in the said Note of the 23d, that the Executive 
Power does not consider this a pecuniary question, but one 
of principle. 

The controversy relative to the said occurrences of 
Panama, having reached the position of an ultimatum, in as 
much as the Government of the United States has made 
the cause of the North Amercan citizens involved in those 
occurrences every way its own, the undersigned is instructed 
to add ; that it being notorious and according to the result 
of the investigation made, that citizens of the United States 
were the cause both of the antecedents and of the imme- 
diate origin of the attempts against life and property which 
occurred in Panama, on the 15th day of April, 1856, and 
who rendered altogether impossible, the thoroughly salutary 
intervention of the authorities and of the public force, the 
Executive Power finds itself in the compulsory position of 
considering the Government of the United States responsi- 
ble for those attempts : and that consequently it ought to 
claim and does claim of it by way of indemnification for 
damages and injuries experienced by the city of Panama, 
by various of its inhabitants, by the families of the natives 
killed or wounded, and by sundry inoffensive foreigners of 
other nations in their persons or property, the sum of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 



42 



In addition to this, the Government cf the United 
States owes in justice reparation to New Granada, for the 
rude protest dated the 21st of April, of Consul Thomas 
William Ward, and for the proved falsity of his official 
assertions regarding persons wearing masks and respecting 
rapes, which he did not dare subsequently to maintain in 
the certificate which was required of him, and which he 
gave under his signature, on the 5th of August ; and for 
the disrespectfulness of Commander T. Bailey towards the 
Governor of the State of Panama, in the communications 
which he addressed to him on the 24th, 25th, and 26th April. 

Subsequent facts, and which are connected with those 
of the 15th of April, in the complaints and claims of the 
official agents of the Government of the United States, 
have also given a right to that of New Granada to claim 
from it, the damages and losses consequent upon the non- 
payment of the legal tax of interoceanic postage on letters 
and despatches conveyed in the North American mail bags 
and the national impost of tonnage which the vessels of the 
United States have desisted from paying, in consequence 
of the threats of Commodore Mervine. The Executive 
forthwith formally establishes this right, and will make use 
of it in the name of the Republic at the fitting moment. 

It is exceedingly painful that owing to substantial 
mistakes, and in consequence of unjust prejudices, a dis- 
turbance of so grave a nature should have arisen in the old 
and constant friendly relations between two. Republics of 
the New World, very disproportionate, it is true, in actual 
power, but called by their geographical position, by the 
nature of their political institutions, and by the progress of 
philosophical and humane ideas, to march together towards 
a smiling future. The Government of New Granada 
expects, nevertheless, from the wisdom and high social 
position of the President of the United States, that upon a 
new and calm examination of the facts, he will give to his 
contemporaries and to posterity, the noble example of 
rectifying his decisions in the deplorable affair forming the 



43 



subject of this Note, with the regard due to/eason and the 
principles of honesty, which are and have been at all times 
the best basis of good policy. 

The Undersigned has the honour to be,- with feelings of 
distinguished consideration, the Honourables Messrs. Morse 
and Bowlin's most obedient servant, 

Lino de Pombo. 



To the Honourables Isaac E. Morse and James B. Bowlin, &c, &c. 



APPENDIX. 



EXTRACT 



From the Presidential Message to the Congress 
of New Granada, of 1st February, 1857. 

" The lamentable occurrence of the 15th of April, of 
last year, whereof the city of Panama was the theatre, an 
event which has been so much disfigured, in consequence 
of not having been properly understood, or the causes 
which produced it properly appreciated, has given rise to 
various claims and even been the cause of the sending of a 
special Commissioner to Bogota. Scarcely had the first 
rumours of the occurrence reached the knowledge of the 
Executive Power, than it gave the most pressing orders 
for proceeding actively against those persons who might 
be found guilty, and to inflict upon them the penalties 
which they might have incurred. It ordered likewise that 
information should be obtained from the most respectable 
persons, and as many data as possible collected, in order to 
ascertain fully the origin and progress of that act, which 
was described as a premeditated attack from the people of 
Panama upon the inoffensive passengers, as an act of 
barbarism, the repitition of which was thought possible, 
for the pretence was made that it was feared that neither 
the national authorities, nor those of the State, possessed 
sufficient means to give protection to the transit across the 
Isthmus. The complete responsibility of the Republic 
and the obligation to meet the most exaggerated charges, 
are the consequences of such a mode of judging. 

" Resting upon the most respectable and impartial 
testimony, I can assure you that the lamentable occurrence 
of the 15th of April commenced with the unjustifiable act 
of Jack Oliver, an American, having fired a pistol at a 



48 



Granadian who was selling fruit. The dispute being of a 
private and solitary nature at first, it soon became general, 
either because endeavours were made to withdraw Oliver 
from the hands of the police, or that the natives took upon 
themselves the defence of their fellow-citizen. The tumult 
increased every moment : most of the passengers who had 
revolvers, thought they might use them with impunity 
against the natives, considering them of an inferior race, 
and making a boast of treating them ill. A fight ensued, 
without any human power being able to prevent it. The 
advantage in the said fight was on the side of the passen- 
gers, provided with arms, whilst the people had none. 

"The Governor of the State, accompanied by the 
Consul of the United States, presented himself in the 
midst of the combatants, and succeeded in getting the 
natives to suspend their fire. Unfortunately the Consul 
could not get the passengers to do the same, and from the 
Railway Station, wherein they had taken refuge, a volley 
was fired upon the Governor and the said Consul. It then 
became impossible to restrain the furious multitude: no 
other cry was heard than that of vengeance, and it was 
totally useless to attempt to avoid unhappy results. The 
Consul retired, and the Governor, persuaded that his 
presence was useless, returned to the city. 

" Two veiy notable facts appear demonstrated in the 
midst of the confusion with which the occurrences of the 
15th April are related : first, that Jack Oliver, firing a 
pistol shot at a native, without motive or reason, was the 
immediate cause of the tumult ; and secondly, that the 
Governor managed to calm the inhabitants of Panama, 
and that the strife commenced afresh when the volley was 
fired from the Station-house and the various hotels, upon 
the authorities and upon the people standing about in 
groups. These facts, the authenticity of which can only 
be doubted by the blindest partiality, show plainly, that 
the people of Panama, docile and humane as the rest of 
the Granadian people, was neither the aggressor nor had 



49 



premeditated any such thing. It listened to the voice of 
the Magistrate, and had it not been for the injustifiable 
tenacity of the passengers, there would not now be any 
reason to lament misfortunes and excesses which the police 
was insufficient to prevent in the midst of a furious multi- 
tude. There were excesses committed, perhaps by foreign 
labourers brought there by the Eailway Company and 
abandoned in Panama to their own resources, and without 
means for returning to their homes : there were excesses ; 
but in justice to the people of Panama it must be said 
that their number was not considerable, considering the 
general excitement, the hour, and the aggression. Eighteen 
men killed, after an obstinate nocturnal combat, in which 
a multitude blinded by passion took part, does not at all 
prove ferocity, bloodthirstiness or premeditation. History 
tells us that in all countries, under similar circumstances, 
the number of victims has been infinitely greater. 

" Since the discovery of the gold of California, the 
Isthmus of Panama has been crossed by an infinite number 
of travellers and by immense sums of gold. There was no 
Railroad, and persons and property required the assistance 
of the natives, both on the desert banks of the river Chagres 
and in the solitudes of the Cruces road. Nothing was 
easier than to assault passengers and rob their property, 
if the inhabitants had not been of a highly moral character. 
Was there security for the transit at that period ? Ye3, 
the most complete, and it may be said without exaggera- 
tion, that in no country in the world immense sums of gold 
have passed with safety through vast solitudes as they 
passed over the Isthmus. 

6i There was complete security, there is at present, and 
there always will be, for passengers and their property 
without being dependent, in any way, on a numerous armed 
force. The occurrences of the 15th April, provoked by 
the brutal attacks of an American, and by the rashness 
and obstinacy of the passengers, only prove that the patience 
of a people should not be abused, however humane, passive, 



50 



and hospitable it may be supposed to be. In Panama, as 
well as throughout the Republic, all foreigners without 
distinction have enjoyed, not only the most complete 
security, but have moreover been the objects of the most 
perfect benevolence. To pretend that any of those who 
cross over the Isthmus has a right to fire upon the natives, 
and that these should humbly receive the blow, is the very 
height of folly and madness. The people that should 
tolerate such an outrage would not deserve to exist : 
ignominy corrodes and envenoms the existence of nations. 

" You will find all that I have above expressed duly 
proved in the documents which will be laid before you by 
the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, no less than the exaggera- 
tion of the charges which are brought against the Republic, 
when it ought rather to make them. The responsibility 
for the unhappy occurrences of the 15th April, which I 
sincerely deplore, does not rest upon New Granada, and 
for the future, I can assure you, nothing is to be feared 
that can endanger the security of the transit over the 
Isthmus of Panama. The authorities of the State count 
upon the necessary means for maintaining order, and if at 
any time, in questions essentially domestic, they have 
yielded to the request of any foreign functionary, there was 
no necessity to employ the force which was placed at their 
disposal, in order to restore public tranquillity. The means 
of which they could themselves dispose were sufficient." 



EXTRACT 

From the Secretary for Foreign Affairs' Report 
to Congress, of 2d February, 1857. 

A much-bruited disaster, and for which we may exclaim 
aloud, before God and man, that our beloved country is 
irresponsible, has unexpectedly come to disturb the hitherto 



51 

uninterrupted good relations between the Governments of 
New Granada and the United States : complicated at the 
same time by circumstances and unfavourable tendencies of 
the moment, and by municipal or legislative acts sinistrously 
interpreted, which render more complicated the diplomatic 
question raised and still pending, but which it is not difficult 
to bring to a happy issue. I allude to the tragical 
occurrences at Panama of the 15th April : sufficiently and 
generally known throughout the country from the official 
publications made at' the time, and of the principal part of 
which I will transmit copies to the Chambers, although 
fatality has given to them a false colouring abroad. 

The Executive Government being aware of the immense 
influence of those events, from the moment the first news 
arrived respecting them, and the consequent urgent 
necessity to place them in a clear point of view and in the 
way of judicial investigation for the punishment of the 
guilty persons, issued without delay all the orders that 
were thought conducive to the attainment of both those 
objects : and moreover being well aided by the first official 
reports and other valuable and trustworthy evidence, was 
enabled to meet on not unfavourable grounds, the claims 
which the Legation of the United States was not slow in 
initiating, by order of its G overnment. 

These claims, from the notorious exaggeration of the 
charges and the very great discrepancy in the manner of 
relating and appreciating the principal circumstances in the 
documents and public papers which were received, a 
divergence not to be explained except by attributing it to 
the hallucinations of prejudice or to unfounded antipathies, 
rendered necessary the intervention, of the Attorney 
General of the Nation, who addressed an injunction to 
Panama on the 2d July, inserted in the Official Gazette of 
the 5th, for the adoption of certain proceedings and ordain- 
ing the examination of witnesses ; also an order addressed 
to the Governor of that State, dated the 3d, recommending 
him to apply to the Foreign Consular Agents at Panama 



52 



and Colon, for explanatory certificates regarding certain 
points : the latter measure being adopted upon the well- 
founded belief that there was but little hope of arriving at 
the real truth, except by means of the condescension of 
those important and essentially impartial functionaries, and 
for the obtaining of whose depositions the co-operation of 
the Diplomatic Corps was at the same time sought. In 
the meantime, the Foreign Office has gone on collecting 
and carefully examining a mass of other data of a private 
and public nature, more or less authentic and worthy of 
credit, and which together forms a voluminous collection, 
in order to obtain by comparing the whole, serious and 
profound convictions such as are indispensable for clearly 
and firmly sustaining a delicate and important cause with 
probability of success. 

The fruit obtained by the above measures has completely 
corresponded to the ideas and presentiments which inspired 
them, as far as regards their investigatory object. 

In the deposition of witnesses, there is found to be 
agreement or very little discrepancy between natives and 
some impartial foreigners, especially as regards the culpa- 
bility of the North American passengers, from the beginning 
of the tragic events of the 15th until the assault made 
upon the railway station by the police : whilst with but 
few exceptions the North American deponents, either state 
the contrary, or did not see or were unacquainted with what 
was asked of them. — It nevertheless appears that : — 

" The Governor of the State is blameless : so that the 
Attorney-General of the Nation has declared that there is 
no foundation for any proceeding against him for respon- 
sibility incurred. 

" Unanimously : That the assertion contained in the 
United States Consul Ward's report to the Legation at 
Bogota, is false, as regards men having been seen amongst 
the assassins and robbers, disguised with black masks, in 
order not to be known : secret instigators of course, such 
as are employed by corrupt communities, and whose 



53 



existence would have corroborated the charge of pre- 
meditation. 

Cs Only two witnesses, North Americans, heard the 
report (probably from the Consul Ward) of the rapes which 
the said Consul mentioned in his reports ; an accusation 
which is totally improbable. 

" A single witness, but whose deposition is confirmed by 
the respectable testimony of the British Consul, declares 
having heard one of the unfortunate victims of the assault 
upon the station, the Irishman, O'Neil, say that the person 
who seriously wounded him, was, judging by his appear- 
ance, a member of the police : the only inculpation of 
the kind against the police force, although various others 
of a general character are made by two North Americans. 

" It is stated that some of the rails were removed at 
the moment in which the arrival of the second train from 
Colon was expected : those who speak of this, differ with 
regard to the object of the mischief, inclining to' the idea 
that the intention was to prevent the arrival of assistance 
to the passengers. One witness, a North American, affirms 
that the object was to plunder the train. 

Moreover, a considerable amount of testimony proves, 
what now, no one seriously doubts : that a drunken and 
quarrelsome North American, by brutally firing a pistol 
shot upon a native, produced the alarm and popular 
excitement : that the armed support rendered to that 
barbarian by his countrymen, in order to prevent his arrest, 
caused the riot to augment rapidly, and to infuriate the 
people : that the North Americans fired upon the Governor 
and upon their own Consul : that the Station-house of the 
Railroad was one of the spots from which they kept up a 
sharp fire ; that the number and fury of the contending 
parties rendered it impossible to calm the violent tempest 
and avoid many of its fatal consequences, although the 
zeal of the disproportionately small police force, aided by 
not a few natives and foreigners, and the spirited co- 
operation of the generality of the inhabitants of Panama, 



54 



saved many lives and much property : that the four 
buildings in which the popular inroad was productive of 
damage and depredations had all of them served as offensive 
and defensive posts to the North Americans ; and that 
the number of killed in the encounter, and from its 
immediate consequences, foreigners and natives, amounted 
to eighteen persons, besides one severely wounded, who 
embarked for California. 

In support of the futile charge of premeditation of what 
happened, an argument was drawn from the ringing of the 
bells of the parish church of Santa Ana, in the suburbs, 
shortly after the pistol shot was fired, supposing the 
circumstances to be connected together by previous com- 
bination ; the following is the explanation of that 
occurrence. The priest, Domingo Ximenez, curate of 
Santa Ana, says upon oath in substance what follows, and 
his testimony is confirmed by several eye-witnesses. At 
the moment of the disturbance in the Cienaga, he was 
in his church, officiating in the funeral of a corpse ; 
suddenly a cry of fire was heard, and he, the Curate, 
believing it was a fire, immediately ordered the bells to be 
rung in the manner usual on such occasions. The congre- 
gation took the alarm, there being present, from curiosity, 
several North Americans of both sexes; the alarm extended 
to persons congregated outside the church, but on becoming 
somewhat quieted, the corpse was removed and the persons 
accompanying it, proceeded towards the place of interment; 
some women then appeared exclaiming that the Americans 
and the natives were killing one another in the Cienaga, 
and all parties dispersed, leaving the corpse alone, until it 
was taken in and attended until midnight by the relatives. 

The loss is very much to be regretted of several consular 
certified statements transmitted to this department, and 
which unfortunately disappeared, owing to the wreck of the 
Magdalena mail boat, and the duplicates have not as yet 
been received ; but three that remain, those of the Consuls 
of England, France, and Equator at Panama, are decidedly 



55 



confirmatory of what I have stated above, excepting only 
the episode of Santa Ana just mentioned, upon which they 
are silent. Herewith you will find a translation, by way 
of sample, of the report of the French Consul, Count de 
Nollent, to which I call your attention. 

According to these unimpeachable documents, it was a 
North American who fired the first pistol shot, without 
either cause or excuse. The British Consul, Mr. Perry, 
mentions his name, which was already known to us, Jack 
Oliver; and states that going along the street with his 
daughter and M. de Varieux, Chancellor of the French 
Consulate, they met with that individual intoxicated, that 
he approached them rudely, and that they found it difficult 
to escape from him. 

The said Consul states that many of the passengers 
were armed with revolvers. 

He is absolutely averse to the belief that there was any 
premeditation ; and observes that had there been an inten- 
tion to plunder, the passengers crossing from the Atlantic 
side would not have been attacked, being for the most part 
poor people, but those returning from California, loaded 
with gold. 

Neither does he believe that masks were used, never 
having heard them spoken of : and M. Consul Ward was 
the only person who told him that a woman had been 
ravished by some blacks. 

Both the Governor and the police lost no time in inter- 
fering ; but Mr. Perry considers that the attack on the 
station-house, made by order of the Governor, was unne- 
cessary, and executed with military violence, because the 
passengers were notoriously badly armed, and amongst 
them there were many women and children. 

He affirms that the firing came both from outside and 
from within the station-house ; and adds, " there can be no 
doubt that the volley fired upon the Governor came from 
there." 

Coinciding with the French Consul, he affirms that 



56 



those who committed excesses were for the most part 
foreigners, principally persons who had been employed as 
labourers on the Eailroad. " He has lived nearly fifteen 
years in Panama, and can bear witness to the kindly dis- 
position of the native population, who viewed with horror 
and dismay the dreadful occurrences of that fatal night." 
And with respect to the outrages committed he adds : — 
" Due allowance should be made, from the state of excite- 
ment on the part of the populace, from the constant acts 
of brutality they have received from the lower class of the 
California passengers." 

He mentions the newly-arrived filibusters, as a cause 
of alarm, many of them taking an active part in the 
encounter. 

He calls attention to the want of the police, which the 
Railroad Company ought to have kept organized. 

He says finally 66 The Company's loss cannot be very 
considerable, as a small amount of money was abstracted 
and the damage done to the freight-house was trifling." 

o o o 

Such is in fact a correct outline of the origin and cir- 
cumstances of what in order to shame our eminently 
hospitable country, unlimitedly liberal to foreigners, has 
been baptized in the United States' newspapers and even 
in their official documents with the frightful epithet of 
" The Panama Massacre." After what has been stated, it 
may be asked : Is the Republic responsible, according to 
the common sense of mankind, for the robberies and deaths 
which it was impossible to prevent ? The Consul of France, 
M. de Nollent, an enlightened, impartial, and judicious 
observer of events on the spot itself, shall make answer for 
me. " The odium of those events and their terrible conse- 
quences must be attributed to the Americans" 

Americans, either native or naturalised, were those who 
by a continued series of ill-deeds and outrages engendered 
an ill-feeling amongst the inhabitants of Panama towards 
their honourable nationality. The following circumstance 
happened, at no very remote period, in one of the public 



57 



streets of Panama. The Governor was talking to the 
Consul of the United States : an American approached the 
Governor, and with a severe blow knocked off his hat, 
saying — " Our Consul is not to be spoken to with your 
hat on !" 

An American was the brute who, "saturated with rum 
and blood," by an iniquitous action provoked the popular 
outbreak, and Americans were his abettors. 

Americans were those who after that the Governor had 
pacified the mob in the suburbs of Panama, irritated them 
afresh and rendered their pacification impossible, saluting 
with volleys of shot the Governor and their own Consul. 

And the assassins and robbers of that awful night were 
almost all unfortunate blacks brought from their cabins in 
a foreign land, by Americans, in order to serve as labourers 
m the railroad, and afterwards barbarously condemned by 
them to indigence and despair. 

By challenging witnesses, either from being people of 
colour, or from having, according to his own memory, been 
previously guilty of some crime or misdemeanour, or for 
having procured arms for their fellow-citizens on the 15th 
of April, in order to repel force by force, and modelling 
after his own fashion the history of events, Mr. Amos B. 
Corwine arrives at a very different conclusion in the report, 
which, in his character of the United States Government 
Commissioner, he addressed to Mr. Secretary Marcy on the 
18th of July. All unprejudiced persons who will read and 
compare shall decide on which side lies the right. 

Fain would we to-day, nine months after those 
deplorable occurrences, on demonstrating the irresponsibility 
of New Granada, be enabled likewise to say : the murderers 
and robbers of the 15th April have been convicted and 
punished. The national authorities have eagerly sought 
that they should be, and have laboured to the utmost 
extent of their legal power, but have not yet obtained their 
end, no doubt owing to the complicated nature of the affair, 
perhaps also from the slowness indispensable though annoy- 



58 



ing of the judicial proceedings. The Executive Govern- 
ment foresaw these delays, when as the Legislature was 
sitting, and something might be done in a legislative form, 
for accelerating these proceedings and ensuring the satis- 
faction of what is denominated public justice, and took the 
necessary steps for insuring those objects. To that end an 
official note on the subject was addressed to the Senate on 
the 27th of May and published in the Gazette of the 31st : 
and having succeeded in obtaining that the Chamber 
should take into consideration a bill for the better admini- 
stration of national affairs in the federal States of Antioquia 
and Panama, establishing Intendents, I had the honour to 
propose three additional articles to that bill, two of which 
were as follows : 

A — In each of the States of Antioquia and Panama, 
there shall be established an agent of the public adminis- 
tration, who shall adopt proceedings ex officio or conform- 
ably to the general instructions and orders which he may 
receive from the Intendent, from the Attorney-General of 
the nation, or from the Executive Government, before the 
political authorities, or the Justices or Tribunals of the 
State, in all matters relating to the national interests or 
any affairs whatsoever. The appointing and dismissing of 
these agents appertains to the Executive Government, who 
shall assign to them for salary and stationery an annual 
sum not less than one thousand dollars, nor exceeding one 
thousand five hundred dollars. 

B — In case of circumstances occurring within either of 
the States, seriously endangering the national welfare, the 
Executive Government is hereby authorised to appoint one 
or more judges in commission, as functionaries of instruction 
and with the necessary jurisdiction for bringing before 
them all and any public officers or private individuals, and 
for adopting the necessary proceedings, collecting all docu- 
ments and investigating facts in order to obtain the trial 
and punishment of the guilty, by the proper authority. 
During the time these judges are in commission, they shall 



59 



be entitled to a daily salary of four or five dollars, to be 
fixed by the Executive Government, and shall moreover be 
paid their travelling expenses at the same rate as Members 
of Congress. 

This law which could have been promptly and usefully 
applied in Panama, was not sanctioned, but was still 
pending in a mutilated state in the Chamber of Represen- 
tatives when the session closed. And as its importance 
and conveniency still remain, being moreover corroborated 
by time, it becomes my duty strenuously to recommend its 
adoption, including the above ai tides, with the appointment 
of a National Intendent at Panama, who would be highly 
useful as regards the Railroad and interoceanic transit, 
insuring likewise the responsibility of the Officers of the 
State, in all matters concerning the interest of the Republic. 

The tragedy of the 15th April, and recent incidents, 
according to the expression of the President of the United 
States, in his Message to Congress of December last, have 
caused and still continue to cause the public peace and the 
transit across the Isthmus to be considered insecure. In 
this, there are serious mistakes. Never has any complaint 
been made against the inhabitants of Panama by either 
residents or passing travellers for actions or even feelings 
of an hostile character ; and every person, including all 
North American citizens, have enjoyed there and continue 
to enjoy, the esteem their behaviour may entitle them to, 
besides the legal guarantees. Peace and order rest upon 
their most important basis, which is the good disposition 
of the people, and for any emergency that may occur, there 
is an organized militia, a small local police force, and a 
moderate but sufficient garrison of national troops. From 
great popular outbreaks of a violent and uncontrollable 
nature, when in solemn moments, multitudes are suddenly 
congregated together becoming electrified and infuriated, 
no country has or ever can be exempted, and the most 
civilised communities are the most exposed to them. If 



60 



foreigners, accustomed to respect nothing, to abuse the 
revolver and the bowie knife, commit excesses and attacks 
upon private persons, it is not to be wondered at, that 
those persons, carried away by a feeling of indignation, 
should repress and punish them in their own defence, before 
the authorities can interfere. The great amount of pas- 
sengers crossing the Isthmus from sea to sea, four times a 
month, brings with it some risk, according to the moral 
qualities of the passengers : there would be nothing 
improper in the nations interested in the transit giving 
occasional support by means of their vessels of war, to the 
local authorities, when called upon, and in the manner 
desired by them. 

The recent incidents, alluded to in the Presidential 
Message, on being examined, can be nothing more than 
the electioneering warmth of September and October on 
the advent of the New Governor. The foreign consuls 
recommended on one of the critical days, that some men 
should be allowed to land from one of the United States 
vessels of war, at anchor in the bay, which was agreed to, 
and they were posted at the Eailway station : but the 
Governor, without at all availing himself of their assistance, 
arrested the agitators or ringleaders of the hostile popular 
movement, made himself respected with his own means, 
and restored tranquillity, which has not since been disturbed. 
On drawing comparisons, because the matter calls for it, 
although all comparisons are odious, the same cannot at all 
be said of some sections of the United States territory, 
with regard to the public safety of foreigners, nor during 
the stormy time of elections. Every individual of the 
Spanish American race existing in California, is most 
anxious to emigrate from thence, because neither his life 
nor property are safe, and many of them have been 
victims of the most horrible treatment. The electoral 
contest has been marked in several States of the Union 
by much violence, riots, and bloodshed. Without 
multiplying quotations, I will here state what a corres- 



61 



pondent of the " New York Herald" says on the 5th of 
November, of the Baltimore votes of the 4th : — 

" The city has been the scene of continued violent 
rioting during the afternoon and evening." 

" At the Eight and Second Ward polls great excite- 
ment, riot and disorder prevailed." 

" A fierce engagement took place between the Democrats 
of the Eighth and the Americans of the Sixth and Seventh 
Wards. Each party were provided with muskets and 
cannon, and kept up the fight for two hours. About fifty 
were wounded, many of them seriously." 

" In the Second Ward, the Democrats drove off the 
Americans, when the Fourth Ward Americans came to 
the rescue, and, after a prolonged and fierce fight, retook 
the polls, driving off the Democrats. The fight lasted 
over an hour. One man was killed, and thirty wounded — 
several fatally." 

The question of the 15th April was notoriously 
complicated, on the one hand by exaggerated ideas of 
annexionism, notwithstanding the express guarantee of 
the sovereignty of New Granada over the Isthmus of 
Panama, subscribed to by the United States in a solemn 
treaty ; and on the other by the secondary questions of 
interoceanic postage and the tonnage tax, established by 
laws of the Republic. As the Congress will be made 
acquainted with the Diplomatic controversy on these 
points by the Finance Secretary, to whose department 
they belong, I will only state : that against the demand 
made for postage, the right which citizens of the United 
States enjoy to equal favors and privileges with native 
Granadians has been improperly invoked, as New 
Granadian Citizens themselves pay the postage : moreover 
the postage tax has been estimated at two millions of 
dollars, when it cannot be above sixty thousand, as it 
only affects letters and despatches and not newspapers : 
and with regard to tonnage, the unconstitutional and 
therefore annulled enactment of the Panama Legislature 



62 

of 1855 has been confounded with the national law of 1856 
made by the competent authority. 

The old municipal tax upon passengers, annulled by the 
Supreme Court, also figured as one of the many complaints 
mentioned in the discussion of the said question. By 
this department a resolution was issued the 27th of 
November and published in the Gazette of the 29th, 
which must finally settle the business. 

The Government of the United States has accredited 
to ours a special Commissioner for the settlement of the 
questions 1 have referred to. If treated calmly and in 
perfect good faith, their solution will be prompt and satis- 
factory. The two Republics are called upon to live in 
close friendship from the analogy of their essential consti- 
tutive principles, and far from there being any antagonism, 
harmony exists in their present and future interests : they 
must therefore undoubtedly understand each other. 



ftE**iuwrk> at the liVerpo&L mail office, south castle street, 



